{"id":416,"date":"2021-03-04T22:47:48","date_gmt":"2021-03-05T06:47:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.aviate.org\/rv7\/?p=416"},"modified":"2021-03-04T22:49:25","modified_gmt":"2021-03-05T06:49:25","slug":"vertical-stabilizer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.aviate.org\/rv7\/2021\/03\/04\/vertical-stabilizer\/","title":{"rendered":"Vertical Stabilizer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Pieces parts<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Next up is the vertical stabilizer. Together with the horizontal stabilizer, this makes the empennage, or tail, of the airplane. We’re working on the stationary parts of the tail. There are also control surfaces that need to be made and attached, which include the rudder, which attaches to the back of the vertical stabilizer, and the elevators, which attach to the end of the horizontal stabilizer. These move the plane in along the yaw and pitch planes (left-right and up-down).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first steps were, as usual, to cleco everything (except the skins) together, then match drilling all the holes to finish size.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Dry-fitting the “skeleton” of the vertical stabilizer<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Once all the holes are drilled up to #30 size, next is to bring over the skin and cleco it on to the skeleton. This was a bit tough. The skin fits tightly to to the spars and ribs by design, so it took a bit of wrangling to get it “stretched” over the frame and cleco’ed in..<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Harder than it looks<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

But with a good amount of elbow grease, the skin was attached and match drilled to #40-sized holes (the size required for 3\/32″ rivets). After all the holes were drilled, it was time to take it all apart and deburr and dimple the skin-to-spars-and-ribs holes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Final fit before disassembly and dimpling<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Stop bit to limit how deep you drill your match holes<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n